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拍品專文
The present pair of dishes, with their boldly-chased borders and central cast plaquettes, have much in common with the magnificent series of silver-gilt sideboard dishes made by William Pitts with a cast central scene of The Feast of the Gods. Of the nine recorded The Feast of the Gods examples made between 1808 and 1820, four were made in 1809, the year of the present lot. These striking dishes were sought-after by Royal patrons and present-day collectors alike. For example, one of 1811 and another of 1812 were commissioned by the Prince Regent for his palatial London residence Carlton House (one exhibited London, The Queen’s Gallery, Buckingham Palace, Carlton House, The Past Glories of George IV’s Palace, 1991-2, no. 73). Another 1809 example was formerly in the Audrey Love collection, sold Christie’s, New York, 19 October 2004, lot 241 (A. Phillips and J. Sloane, Antiquity Revisited; English and French Silver-Gilt from the Collection of Audrey Love, London, 1997, no. 5, pp. 44-46). A further 1809 example is illustrated in The Glory of the Goldsmith: Magnificent Gold and Silver from The Al-Tajir Collection, London, 1989, no. 127, pp. 164-165. A George III silver-gilt sideboard dish by William Pitts, London, 1809, also engraved with the crest of Canning and a Royal badge, was sold at Christie's, New York, 27 October 2015, lot 81.
Sometime around 1808, William Pitts Senior responded to the increasing interest in 'antique' silver. He was one of the first makers to produce silver objects in the historicist style for the Royal goldsmiths Rundell, Bridge and Rundell. William Pitts, under the direction of Rundell's, was one of the first 19th-century English silversmiths to incorporate antique plaques (or castings from them) into his work. The plaque in the centre of the present dishes could be castings from 17th century reliefs, based in turn upon antique models. A pair of other dishes by William Pitts of 1810, now in the Royal Collection, include earlier plaques of the Restoration period: one dated 1678, the other marked by Jacob Bodendick, a foreign-trained maker who had the protection of Charles II. It is possible that the 17th-century plaques were already in the Royal Collection when Rundells commissioned Pitts to mount them. The Royal dishes have chased floral decoration of 17th-century inspiration similar to that on the present dishes (see E. A. Jones, The Gold and Silver of Windsor Castle, 1911, pl. XCVIII).
Sometime around 1808, William Pitts Senior responded to the increasing interest in 'antique' silver. He was one of the first makers to produce silver objects in the historicist style for the Royal goldsmiths Rundell, Bridge and Rundell. William Pitts, under the direction of Rundell's, was one of the first 19th-century English silversmiths to incorporate antique plaques (or castings from them) into his work. The plaque in the centre of the present dishes could be castings from 17th century reliefs, based in turn upon antique models. A pair of other dishes by William Pitts of 1810, now in the Royal Collection, include earlier plaques of the Restoration period: one dated 1678, the other marked by Jacob Bodendick, a foreign-trained maker who had the protection of Charles II. It is possible that the 17th-century plaques were already in the Royal Collection when Rundells commissioned Pitts to mount them. The Royal dishes have chased floral decoration of 17th-century inspiration similar to that on the present dishes (see E. A. Jones, The Gold and Silver of Windsor Castle, 1911, pl. XCVIII).